I was eagerly looking forward to Tim Burton’s take on Lewis Carroll all through 2009, but by the time it was finally released in Tokyo, in April of 2010, the marketing over-exposure had put me right off it, and I never got around to seeing it in the theater. However, it did inspire me to [...]
Terry Gilliam’s films used to be an endless source of magic for me. Time Bandits is a film I remember watching countless times as a child on TV and the family’s top-loading VCR, and I always felt special that I shared a first name with the protagonist. When I started watching cinema with a slightly [...]
I first saw Sweeney Todd on a flight from Tokyo to London. I was a bit surprised that they were showing such a gory film as an in-flight movie, but it was Virgin Airlines after all. At the time I didn’t care much for it. I loved the production design, which is probably the best [...]
When the Blu Ray format was announced, as a movie fan living in Japan, where the technology was developed, I should have been thrilled, but I found it hard to get excited about the new technology. I figured that the films that would most benefit from 5.1 surround sound and increased resolution would be things [...]
Tim Burton may have developed his trademark style with Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, but I have always thought that Sleepy Hollow is the most masterful expression of his style as well as the common themes of his work. It is almost a perfect fantasy movie, with the one flaw being that Christina Ricci is a [...]
I first saw Ed Wood shortly after I was released, when I was doing a year of college abroad in Hungary. The university I was studying at showed films in a lecture hall almost every night of the week with admission costing under a dollar. I saw a lot of films there, including taking in [...]
For my last John Waters film for this year and probably the last for a while, I watched Cry Baby. This was Waters only film made with a big Hollywood studio, and it shows. The anarchy of his early films such as Pink Flamingos has dried up, and the twisted comedy of Serial Mom is [...]
A friend and I recently watched the documentary Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006), which was a bit of a disappointment in that it did not take an analytical enough perspective, but it predictably made us want to go back and watch some of the original films it featured. [...]
Actor: Johnny Depp
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
I was eagerly looking forward to Tim Burton’s take on Lewis Carroll all through 2009, but by the time it was finally released in Tokyo, in April of 2010, the marketing over-exposure had put me right off it, and I never got around to seeing it in the theater. However, it did inspire me to [...]
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Terry Gilliam’s films used to be an endless source of magic for me. Time Bandits is a film I remember watching countless times as a child on TV and the family’s top-loading VCR, and I always felt special that I shared a first name with the protagonist. When I started watching cinema with a slightly [...]
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
I first saw Sweeney Todd on a flight from Tokyo to London. I was a bit surprised that they were showing such a gory film as an in-flight movie, but it was Virgin Airlines after all. At the time I didn’t care much for it. I loved the production design, which is probably the best [...]
Corpse Bride (2005)
When the Blu Ray format was announced, as a movie fan living in Japan, where the technology was developed, I should have been thrilled, but I found it hard to get excited about the new technology. I figured that the films that would most benefit from 5.1 surround sound and increased resolution would be things [...]
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Tim Burton may have developed his trademark style with Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, but I have always thought that Sleepy Hollow is the most masterful expression of his style as well as the common themes of his work. It is almost a perfect fantasy movie, with the one flaw being that Christina Ricci is a [...]
Ed Wood (1994)
I first saw Ed Wood shortly after I was released, when I was doing a year of college abroad in Hungary. The university I was studying at showed films in a lecture hall almost every night of the week with admission costing under a dollar. I saw a lot of films there, including taking in [...]
Cry Baby (1990)
For my last John Waters film for this year and probably the last for a while, I watched Cry Baby. This was Waters only film made with a big Hollywood studio, and it shows. The anarchy of his early films such as Pink Flamingos has dried up, and the twisted comedy of Serial Mom is [...]
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A friend and I recently watched the documentary Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006), which was a bit of a disappointment in that it did not take an analytical enough perspective, but it predictably made us want to go back and watch some of the original films it featured. [...]